Someone in particular
by Eledhwen
Summary: Donna is planning the rest of her life; Jack Harkness is looking for an old friend. Spoilers up to "The Runaway Bride" and none for Torchwood.


_**Disclaimer:**__ How I wish I owned them! Anyway, I don't; they're the property of the BBC._

**Someone in particular**

In the first few weeks of the New Year, Donna Noble had the same nightmare three times. In it, she was not able to escape the flames and the floods of the Doctor's fury, but was consumed by them. She woke each time sweating and disoriented and more than a little furious at the man from outer space who had changed her life.

But she had made him a promise, as well; and despite the anger she still felt like getting on with fulfilling that promise. And so it was that in the first week of February, Donna was at home packing away her belongings in preparation for the trip ahead - around the world and back again.

She wasn't expecting a knock on the door, and she certainly wasn't expecting the person doing the knocking to be so downright gorgeous.

"Hi," she said.

"Miss Donna Noble?" Mr Gorgeous, despite looking like he had walked off a film set, had a serious set to his mouth. Donna nodded.

"Yeah."

"May I come in?" He was already half inside the flat, so Donna stood back, let him past, and closed the door. "Captain Jack Harkness," her visitor went on, turning with a swish of long coat. "I've come about Christmas."

Donna folded her arms. "I gave my statement to the police. They said I had nothing to do with any of it."

"And we both know that's not true, don't we?" said Captain Harkness, smiling thinly. "I'm from Torchwood, Miss Noble. Can we sit down somewhere?"

She thought, briefly, about trying to lie a little more, but considered that if her visitor knew about Torchwood it would probably be a waste of time. The Doctor had warned her about the mysterious organisation behind HC Clements - or at least had said Torchwood was "definitely not to be trusted".

Donna led Captain Harkness into her living room, moved a few boxes to clear space on the sofa, and waved at it. "Have a seat."

He sat down, twitching the tails of his coat out of the way. She found a spare chair opposite.

"I still gave my statement to the police," Donna said, defiantly.

"I read it," said the captain. "Interesting stuff. I also read some of the statements from your wedding guests. Exploding Christmas tree ornaments? Robot Santas?"

"Someone's idea of a joke," Donna suggested.

"Did you laugh?" Captain Harkness asked. "Thought not. As I said, Miss Noble, I'm from Torchwood. We owned HC Clements. Before it was … destroyed. Along with all the CCTV footage. I was hoping you might be able to help us fill the gaps in what really happened that night." 

Donna folded her arms. "And what happens if I do tell you? Will you arrest me? Worse?"

Captain Harkness raised his eyebrows. "Someone's been telling you horror stories about Torchwood, Miss Noble. We won't execute you, if that's what you're thinking. I'll give you an amnesia pill so you can forget all about it, that's all."

She reflected on this for a moment. Ending the nightmares would be a good thing. But somehow she did not want to forget, either; forgetting would be pretending it never happened.

"Please," Harkness said, his voice softening for a moment. "Let's begin at the beginning. What took you from your wedding? I've seen the video - none of my people can identify it."

"Huon particles," Donna said, giving into him. "They're called Huon particles. This big spider thing needed them to get her children back."

"Spider thing? So there was a Racnoss?"

"That's what it was called," Donna agreed. "Big ugly alien. She'd got my Lance, got him dreaming of power and that, and he'd fed me the particles." 

Harkness made some notes. "Okay. You're doing great so far." He leaned forward. "Your guests, at the reception - they said you turned up with another man. In a suit. Who was he?" 

Donna shook her head. "Nobody. Gave me a lift, that's all." She smiled at him, trying to be the innocent victim. 

Leafing through the file on his lap, Harkness pulled out a photograph and passed it across to her. There was something pleading in his eyes. "Was that him?"

She took the photograph, glanced at it - a man's face, with deep-set eyes, a long nose and big ears. Nobody she knew; she said so.

Captain Harkness took the picture back, looking down at his notebook with what seemed to be disappointment. "Can you describe the man you were with? They said he left with you."

"Like I said, he was nobody in particular," Donna said, thinking there was probably nobody who was more individual than the Doctor. "He just gave me a lift. Tall and skinny, in a suit."

Harkness put his pen down, and leaned forwards. "Miss Noble … Donna, I _have_ to know. What was he called?"

She shrugged. "Didn't give me a name."

He looked hard at her for a moment, and sat back again. "All right. Forget him, if he's nobody. What happened to the Racnoss? How did the floods start?" 

"I dunno!" Donna shrugged again. "Maybe one of them robot things? Look, Captain, I was just the victim in all of this, right? I lost my fiancé, and my job. Wouldn't have tried to flood HC Clements, would I?"

Harkness stood up, and began to stroll the room with his hands behind his back, examining her boxes.

"Are you going somewhere?" he asked. 

"Got no job, I thought I'd go travelling. See the world a bit," Donna said.

He spun on his heel. "See, I don't think that's the sort of answer I'd have expected from a girl like you. I'd have expected you to find a job - in a shop, or temping, or something. But you're talking about Huon particles and aliens as if they were normal, and you've heard Torchwood's dangerous."

"Is it?"

"It used to be," Harkness said. "Not any more. Thing is, Donna, there's only one man I know who'd change a girl like that. Only one man who'd inspire that kind of loyalty. I'm looking for him. Not Torchwood - me. I'm trying to find the Doctor. Do you know where he is?" 

Donna uncrossed and recrossed her legs, trying to buy time against the insistent blue gaze. "Only doctor I know's the local GP."

"My Doctor's a time-traveller," said Harkness, his voice intense. "He has a ship, called the TARDIS - looks like a blue box, but it's so much more. He's from a planet called Gallifrey."

Donna looked away from him, remembering the pain and anger and rage in the Doctor's voice as he spoke that name to the Empress of the Racnoss.

"When I knew him," the captain continued, "he was that man in the photo I showed you. But it sounds like he regenerated - it's a thing his people can do."

"Re-what?"

"Regenerated. Changed his body. A way of cheating death." Captain Harkness's lips quirked in a half-smile. "Did he have anyone with him? A girl, maybe? Blonde?"

"He …" Donna stopped, just in time, but Harkness had caught the slip.

"Her name's Rose," he said. "I know the Doctor. I'm looking for him. I used to travel with him, and with Rose, but I … got left behind, and I want to know why. I _have_ to know why." He sat down on the sofa again. "The last thing I'd do is hurt him." 

Donna met his eyes. "No Rose," she said, feeling, somehow, he was telling the truth. "Said he'd lost her." 

The captain rested his chin on his hands. "How was he?" 

"Bloody crazy!" she said. "Terrifying. Saved my life."

"Yeah," Harkness said, "you met the Doctor. What did he do to the Racnoss?"

Donna told him the story, and he listened, throwing in a question here and there. He had stopped writing, and he looked a little wistful, as if he envied her. "But you didn't go with him?" he asked, when she had finished.

"I didn't want to," she said. "Honest," she added, when he gave her a sceptical glance. "I haven't seen anything of Earth, let alone the rest of the universe. But travelling with him …"

"It's the best thing in the universe," said Harkness, softly. "To see the turning of time, journey through the ages and across the stars - with the Doctor - oh, Donna Noble, you have no idea."

"It means running for your life with a bloke with no name," Donna said, ignoring the tone in Captain Harkness's soft voice. "No, ta; I'm off to Mexico."

Harkness stood up. "Did he say where he was going?"

Donna shook her head. "Nah, sorry."

He gave her a scrap of paper with a Cardiff number scrawled on it. "Here. If he comes by again, tell him I called. Tell him to come to the Rift in Cardiff. Tell him I need to see him."

She took the paper. "All right." 

At the door, Captain Harkness shook her hand. "Thank you. For protecting him. And for talking. Enjoy your travels." He gave her a brief salute and headed across the street to a flashy black jeep, which shortly roared into motion and disappeared.

Donna closed the door behind him and leant on it for a moment before going back to the packing.

Her dreams that night were not filled with flame and water, but with the spinning stars of a thousand galaxies. For the first time, when she woke in the morning, it was with a touch of regret for her decision to stay with her feet on Earth.


End file.
